Hobby Dorms Reloaded

So I took a break from making and testing Hobby Dorms to make a Supernatural Dorm.

I went into this project with some standards to uphold, of course:

1) Entrances to the building(s) — and the buildings themselves — must be near the portals off the lot, both for the zombies (who would otherwise be stuck shuffling all the way across the lawn and consistently being late for class) and for the vampires (who might otherwise die from sunlight before they can get to and from classes and Final Exams).

2) There must be several coffins (for the vampires).

3) There must be plenty of gardening plots, orchard trees, fishing water and/or the general means to make sparkly food: refrigerator, empty non-island counter space and non-ShinyTyme stove/grill (for the werewolves, who become ravenously hungry after a shapechange).

4) Plenty of showers and/or baths, sinks, outdoor space and/or sunlamps must be included (for the PlantSims; more available showers, baths and/or sinks will also help zombies with their droopy Hygiene).

5) Items for fulfilling all standard Wants and University-related Wants must be made available (both as good practice and to save non-Knowledge Sims from Aspiration Failure once the werewolves start howling and fulfilling their Fears).

6) Use a smaller lot and build vertically, not horizontally (because zombies can't skip or run, but they can still climb and descend stairs at normal speed, and I might even splurge on an even more zombie-friendly elevator or two...).

Yeah. Remember the intro to the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis? Zombies love elevators!

7) Include more spacious common areas and/or dorm rooms (so the witches have room for their cauldrons and spellbooks, because sometimes you just can't be bothered to fly to the Magical World).

8) Ensure that all general requisites and standards for building Dorms are honored:
• At least one Dorm door per Dorm bedroom. (Beds and coffins may be placed in the more out-of-the-way common areas, if needed, but have one Dorm door for every student living in the dorm available.)
• one ShinyTyme stove, one sprinkler/smoke detector, one dishwasher/sink and several island counters for each Cafeteria Worker to be spawned.
• Place all sprinklers directly over stoves or other solid objects so the Cow Mascots can't set them off.
• At least one skilling object for each of the seven Skills.
• Enough computers for at least one-quarter of the Dorm doors (so that students can write Term Papers and — if applicable — Hack Grades).
• At least one bookshelf with plenty of seats in the room (for Group Research).
• Several desks and/or tables with vacant surfaces; students don't need them in order to complete Assignments, but they're highly recommended. Leaving at least one end of the desk/table unobstructed so that students can easily place or retrieve their Assignments is also advisable.
• At least one telephone, of course (so that students who lack cell phones can still call their Major's Professors to raise their grades, so that they have the option of joining a Greek House and so that they can throw a Graduation Party or any other kind of party if they're so inclined).
• Modular stairs, never one-piece stairs! (Away with that daft "One student on the stairs at a time" nonsense when you have four or five students hurrying off to Final Exams!) Bear in mind that students can run on straight stairs but not on spiral stairs!
• (Optional) Place each flight of stairs at least two stairs wide, or otherwise have multiple modular staircases leading from floor to floor.
• (Optional) At least one Robot Bench (for making SentryBots to repel the Cow Mascot, if desired).
• (Optional) High-value, high-Energy-replenishing beds (for students who sleep during the day; the less time they're in bed, the less likely that that one obnoxious Professor who always visits the Dorm for no good reason will ring the doorbell and wake them up).
• (Optional) Plenty of roof space, flat roofs and/or flat land (for students donating green energy sources to the dorm to help keep the bills low).
• (Optional) Deciduous trees (so every Autumn/Fall, students can rake leaves to raise Cleaning and get free compost).

I think I acquited myself all right.


That floor looks familiar somehow. Any idea where I might have found it, Catherine?


Same again for that ceiling!


The dorm's a bit lavish, but it does the job. And its entrances are pretty close to the portals!


Modular stairs, two stairs wide? Check!

No elevators, though. I just didn't see fit to add any. They are good for carrying zombies from floor to floor, and when an elevator breaks, you get to work on your Mechanical skill! But no elevators this time around.


Skilling objects for each of the seven Skills? Check!

(I like to add multiple kinds of skilling objects, when possible; when it comes to raising Creativity, for one, Serious Sims seem to like writing a novel on a computer more than they like painting or playing music. And Erica is a Serious Sim, so why I decided to put her on an easel is beyond me!)


I had originally moved Erica into another saved lot that I had packaged in a previous incarnation of TS2. But on seeing that the fridge was stocked with Fresh Food, the juicer was filled with eggplants and oranges, many of the beds were unmade and there were books lying around here and there, I realized that I had packaged that lot after students had lived in it (back when I was dumb enough to do that), which is a corruption risk. So I had Erica empty the juicer into her pockets, make a few Group Meal sparkly sandwiches and move the snarf off the lot before she grew three heads and started crashing the game or whatever.

So now the new juicer in their new dorm has eggplants in it, and they're working on growing more produce. Both of the werewolves happen to have Nature as their One True Hobby, so that helps.


The zombies are all Music & Dance sorts, but there's no reason why they can't grab a few hoes while they're ambling around.


I love those garden overlays!

Maybe I should have scattered some deciduous trees and evergreens among the orchard trees to lend the place more of a "Carpathian forest" vibe.


Who needs brains when you have freshly squeezed orange juice?


Sunlight sucks.


ONE PEST AT A TIME, please!


Ooh. Those two are actually getting along for a change!


It didn't last, of course.


Lady, werewolves get more exercise before 4:00 AM than you get all day, so I don't even want to hear it!

So anyway, at some point after moving my Simmy students in and Creature Shacking them, I realized that, like a perfect imbecile, I had forgotten to package the virgin lot before moving students in! So much for packaging this lot and adding it to my stock dorms....

I also need to bug Ocelotekatl about his Nine Archers dorm doors; they act as regular dorm doors, but the game's not reading them as dorm doors, so it doesn't populate the dorm with Dormies to fill the empty rooms. The dorm feels a bit lonely without all the Dormies getting underfoot, leaving Assignments all over the place and getting crossways with the Cow Mascot, so I may have to enable Build Mode so I can replace the Nine Archers dorm doors with regular Myne Doors, at least for now (until I find a solution to the problem with the Nine Archers dorm doors themselves).

Thoughts?

Wow! You put a lot of thought into the construction of this dorm! I'm sure your "students" appreciate the effort
I'm loving' the floors

It looks like a lot of fun - you are having fun, yes?

"Why don't you two crack that coffin lid open a little and I'll show you exactly what I think of your school spirit?"

(31-07-2023 03:32 AM)CatherineTCJD Wrote:  Wow! You put a lot of thought into the construction of this dorm! I'm sure your "students" appreciate the effort
I'm loving' the floors

It looks like a lot of fun - you are having fun, yes?

Absolutely! I wouldn't keep playing TS2 if I weren't! And with as much competition as TS2 has on my hard drive — Subnautica: Below Zero, Darklands, The Sims 3, Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, Ponyvania: Order of Equestria, Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Streets of Rage Remake, First Person Lover, Neverwinter Nights, Alien Swarm, Magicka, Left 4 Dead and whatever else, for TS2 to keep bringing me back night after night, it must be doing something right!


And the werewolves are quickly proving to me that werewolves are the ultimate University students. They can be pretty sloppy and messy, but they're awake for anywhere from 18 to 24 Simmy hours a day (depending on which Aspiration benefits they have and which activities you're putting them through), which is plenty of time for them to do Assignments, write Term Papers, call their Professors, go to class and still see to their Needs. Some Simmers don't like sparkly food, but it really helps at keeping your werewolf happy and hearty!

Vampires are pretty good too, but somewhere in my old TS2 installation I have the mod which stops the hefty Needs drain which happens if your vampires are indoors but out of their coffins during the daylight hours. This Maxis default is too much, if you ask me; the regular Needs depletion from Sims just doing their regular bumbling around is enough incentive to get your vampires to their coffins without being overbearing or merciless. So I really need to dig that mod up again.

(And if werewolves could use their "Grrr!" interactions on the Cow Mascots while the Mascots are "on duty", that would be perfect! Same with vampires using "Bleh!" Making obnoxious Sims run off the lot after a horrific Bladder Failure never gets old! )

And what Simmy adventures have you been up to lately? Besides making a lot of snazzy-looking floors, I mean.

Me? I'm delving into SC4 finally and making a hood.
A hood on my own terrain/map.
...an unsimmed hood - just buildings.

I never got around to picking up SC4 so I could try that myself!

Can we look forward of seeing any picses of your work?

(02-08-2023 05:34 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  Can we look forward of seeing any picses of your work?

I just uploaded my first one to MTS yesterday. I had to go through the queue - but it went through on the first try!

The first try? That sounds like an uncommon occurrence! Is Karen still at the helm?

No... Karen retired a few years ago. So - it must be a miracle!

(08-08-2023 01:24 PM)CatherineTCJD Wrote:  No... Karen retired a few years ago. So - it must be a miracle!

You mean to tell me that the new Uploads Manager is even more impossible to please? Sweet mother of Zeus, how did you make it?

Well... I will tell you - it's going on 36 hours since I tried to upload my second SC4 terrain. *sigh* I am not a fan of the queue.
I did it exactly the same as the first one, so I don't see why there is a hold up - unless it is just understaffing. (Which is understandable, I'm not about to volunteer!)
Once I get the third one uploaded, I won't have to do the queue for SC4 terrains.
Yay!

...of course, I'll probably only ever have 4 terrains to upload.